Decade long £650million push to cut youth crime has had 'no measurable impact'

Government reforms appear to have done little to reduce the number of children and young people who offend (posed by models)

The Government's justice reforms have had "no measurable impact" on youth crime, a study claims.

The report by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) at King's College London said most youth justice targets had been missed - despite a 45% increase in spending since 2000.

Criminologists assessed the impact of reforms since the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act set up the Youth Justice Board (YJB) - a quango overseeing the way young criminals are punished - and youth offending teams in England and Wales.

The YJB said an official independent audit showed the reforms had delivered big improvements.

But in the review of the £650m system, the CCJS said the government's claims of success had been over-stated.

CCJS director Richard Garside said: "The Government's decade-long youth justice experiment was a bold attempt to deploy the full force of the youth justice system to tackle problematic and disruptive behaviour by young people.

"This new research suggests that the experiment has largely failed, if reported youth offending is the measure of success.

"As the Government continues to explore ways to control public spending this research suggests that ever growing criminal justice budgets are unlikely to deliver the long-term or sustainable success."

Enver Solomon, co-author of the CCJS report, said the findings suggested the multi-agency youth offending teams were not necessarily working.

Solomon said: "The Government's record on youth crime and tackling the multiple needs of children caught up in the youth justice system is less impressive than many would have expected following a wide-ranging programme of reform and substantial investment.

"This raises questions about the success of the reforms in making an impact on the number of children and young people who offend, and demonstrates that the youth justice agencies can do little more than regulate youth crime.

"The Government has placed too high expectations on the youth justice system and should be clearer about its limitations."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "The Government is committed to tackling youth offending and reducing its impact on communities by intervening early with young people to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour.

"Much has been achieved in tackling youth crime. Reoffending among juveniles fell by more than 17% between 2000 and 2005 and overall youth offending levels remain stable.

"However, there is clearly more work to do and we are pushing forward our efforts to reduce re-offending further, including by launching a Youth Crime Action Plan this summer.

"Long-term, sustainable reductions in re-offending by children and young people require parents and carers, the community, local agencies and young people themselves to work in partnership to tackle the risk factors associated with offending."

Rod Morgan, who resigned as head of the Youth Justice Board last year, said the study's findings were "almost incontrovertible" in showing that the Government had directed too much money towards the youth justice system and too little towards dealing with the social problems which push young people into crime.

Mr Morgan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I agree whole-heartedly with the King's College report that the centre of gravity of spending is distorted. It is precisely some of the trends they are talking about - the increased used of criminalisation, the number of youths we have in custody - that led me to resign.

"If we are serious about preventing youth crime, it has something to do with the youth justice system, but it has much more to do with broader social policies relating to the family, relating to education and housing.